Begin your troubleshooting by gathering information about the message problem. By discussing the problem with the subscriber, sometimes you can determine whether a problem is due to a misunderstanding of how Cisco Unity works. If you encounter a message problem that is not described in this section, contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC).

Messages Appear to Be Delayed

There are several possible reasons that messages may appear to be delayed. In this section, possible causes for message delays are listed in order, from most likely to least likely to occur:

Cisco Unity Primary Exchange Server Is Down or Is Disconnected

Messages recorded while the primary Exchange server is down or disconnected are stored until the server is brought back up. The delay experienced between the time a message is recorded and its delivery is entirely dependent on the amount of time that the primary Exchange server was down or disconnected.

A Subscriber Misunderstands the Use of the # Key

When a subscriber presses the # key while listening to a message, Cisco Unity saves the message as a new message and skips to the next message. Later, the subscriber checks messages again, hears the same message, and believes the message arrived after a delay.

Explain to the subscriber that pressing the # key while a message plays saves it as a new message.

System Clock Time Is Incorrect

When the system clock is slow or when a desk clock is fast, the subscriber may believe messages were delayed.

Confirm that the system clock on the Cisco Unity server is reporting the correct time.

Exchange Settings Were Updated

When settings are changed for a subscriber in Exchange, the new values may not be reflected immediately in Cisco Unity.

Explain to the subscriber that the settings may take a few minutes to synchronize, causing a delay in receipt of messages.

AMIS Messages Are Unable to Be Delivered Promptly

There are a number of reasons why AMIS messages may not be delivered promptly (or why they may be perceived as not being delivered promptly):

•Outbound AMIS messages can be restricted to use only certain voice messaging ports. If the ports designated to handle AMIS messages are busy with other calls, outbound AMIS messages can be delayed. The AMIS Out Traffic report shows AMIS outbound traffic and total transmission time used. If the total transmission time approaches the limit of the ports dedicated to AMIS deliveries, review the AMIS schedule and port assignments to determine if additional resources (time and/or ports) should be dedicated to AMIS message traffic.

•AMIS delivery of non-urgent messages can be restricted to occur only at scheduled delivery times. This may cause the recipient to believe message delivery was delayed.

•Some AMIS messages may be undeliverable. An undeliverable message is returned to the sender with a non-delivery receipt (NDR) status; the sender or the administrator can make corrections and resend the message. This may also appear to the recipient as a delayed delivery.

Network or Home Exchange Server Is Down

This applies only if there are multiple Exchange servers. Increasing the Max Open Retries value and decreasing the Open Interval value will increase the number of tries and decrease the wait time Exchange uses when it tries to deliver a message after the network or server comes back up.

Change these message transfer agent (MTA) site configuration values, if needed, in the Exchange Administrator.

A Mailbox Is Full

When an Exchange mailbox has exceeded the Prohibit Send and Receive limit set in the Exchange Administrator, no new messages can be sent or received. When a recipient mailbox is full, an undeliverable message is returned to the sender.

Encourage the subscriber to dispose of messages promptly so that the Exchange mailbox does not fill up.

Undeliverable Messages Have Not Been Forwarded to Recipients

Messages returned to the Cisco Unity Messaging System mailbox are forwarded automatically to subscribers whose names appear on the Unaddressed Messages public distribution list. The messages then must be forwarded to the intended recipients.

Explain to subscribers on the Unaddressed Messages public distribution list the importance of regularly checking for and forwarding undeliverable messages.

Troubleshooting Problems with Outbound AMIS Messages

If you have just set up Cisco Unity and another voice messaging system for AMIS, and messages are not being delivered, confirm before proceeding that the other voice messaging system is supported by Cisco Unity for AMIS messaging. See the "AMIS Support" section of the Cisco Unity 3.1 System Requirements, and Supported Hardware and Software, available on Cisco.com at http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/voice/c_unity/sysreq/31_sysrq.htm.

Cisco Unity logs AMIS-related errors to the Windows Application Event log. The first step in troubleshooting AMIS outbound message delivery problems is to check the Event log. See the "AMIS Error Messages" section on page 8-12 for more information about each of the errors and a brief description of the action to take to resolve the problem. Then if needed, refer back to this section for detailed troubleshooting information.

When a subscriber sends a message, if the recipient has an address in the form AMIS:<Location Dial ID>_<Remote Mailbox Number>, then the Voice Connector delivers the message to the UAmis mailbox. Next, the AMIS schedule, the AMIS restriction table, and the other AMIS delivery options are checked to determine when to send the message. To troubleshoot problems with outbound AMIS messages, you need to determine where the problem has occurred on the path that AMIS messages take through Cisco Unity. You may need to check to see if messages are stuck in the UAmis mailbox.

Note that when a message is addressed to an AMIS recipient by using the phone, a copy of the message is not saved in the Outlook Sent Items folder after the message leaves the UAmis mailbox. However, when a message is addressed to an AMIS recipient by using Outlook, a copy of the message is saved in the Sent Items folder of the UAmis mailbox.

See the following sections for more information on troubleshooting outbound AMIS messages:

Messages Are Not Delivered to the UAmis Mailbox

When subscribers address messages to an AMIS recipient, the Voice Connector is responsible for delivering the messages to the UAmis mailbox. If messages are not showing up in the UAmis mailbox, then there is a problem with the Voice Connector. When there is a problem with the Voice Connector, no AMIS-related errors are logged to the Windows Application Event log.

Messages Are Stuck in the UAmis Mailbox

After the Voice Connector has delivered a message to the UAmis mailbox, the AMIS schedule and the AMIS restriction table will determine when the message will be sent. When an AMIS delivery number is allowed by the restriction table, messages to this number are sent immediately from the UAmis mailbox—the schedule settings do not matter. When the delivery number is disallowed by the restriction table, messages to this number are queued in the UAmis mailbox until the active hours of the AMIS schedule.

An error is logged in the Windows Application Event log when messages remain in the UAmis mailbox for more than 24 hours. Only one error is logged in the Event log, no matter how many messages remain in the UAmis mailbox. An additional error is logged daily until the messages are either sent or deleted from the UAmis mailbox.

•In the Cisco Unity Administrator, review the settings for the AMIS restriction table. If any delivery numbers are disallowed, messages addressed to these numbers will be queued in the UAmis mailbox. This may not be what you intended. To send the messages immediately, change the AMIS schedule so that it is active during the time that you are troubleshooting. After the messages are sent from the UAmis mailbox, reset the AMIS schedule and adjust the AMIS restriction table as needed.

•Review the AMIS schedule. Confirm that the schedule has sufficient Active hours set for sending all the messages.

•Go to the System > Ports page, and confirm that there is at least one port configured for outbound AMIS messages.

•Go to the Reports > System > AMIS Out Traffic page, and run the report.

If the total transmission time (listed at the bottom of the transmission duration column, and reported in seconds) is approaching the limit of the ports dedicated to AMIS deliveries, all of the port resources available are being used. Review the AMIS schedule and port assignments again to determine if additional resources (time and/or ports) should be dedicated to AMIS message traffic.

•Confirm that the delivery phone numbers on all AMIS delivery locations are valid. To confirm that the delivery phone numbers are valid, do one of the following:

–If there are not many AMIS delivery locations, in the Cisco Unity Administrator, go to the Network > Delivery Locations > Profile page of each AMIS delivery location to confirm the delivery phone number.

•In Outlook, confirm that the messages are marked as Unread. Messages that have been manually marked as Read will not be sent from the UAmis mailbox. For example, if someone has been monitoring the UAmis mailbox and has opened a message, then that message will not be sent.

•If you still have not determined why the messages are stuck in the UAmis mailbox, use the Cisco Unity Diagnostic Tool to set micro traces.

–In the Cisco Unity Administrator, go to the Network > AMIS Options > Delivery Options page. Review the settings for If The Remote System Does Not Answer and If The Remote System Is Busy. These settings should be set to at least the default values (Hang Up After 4 Rings; Try Calling 4 Times; Retry Every 5 Minutes). Otherwise, the remote voice messaging system may not be given enough time to answer.

–Go to the Network > Delivery Options > Profile page of each of the AMIS delivery locations. If the Disable Outbound Messages To This AMIS Location check box is checked, change the Delivery Phone Number as needed, and then uncheck the check box.

–Go to the Network > Primary Location > Profile page. Confirm that the Node ID is accepted by the remote voice messaging system.

–Confirm that the extension addresses listed in Exchange for AMIS subscribers are correct. If the Dial ID for an AMIS delivery location has changed, or if the remote mailbox number for an AMIS subscriber has changed, you need to run the Extension Address utility to update the extension addresses. See the procedures, To view AMIS subscriber extension addresses and To run the Extension Address utility for more information.

•If you have not determined why the messages are not being delivered, use the Cisco Unity Diagnostic Tool to set micro traces and send a test message. See the procedure, To set and retrieve traces for AMIS messages. You may need to contact Cisco TAC to interpret the data in the traces.

Troubleshooting Problems with Inbound AMIS Messages

If you have just set up Cisco Unity and the other voice messaging system for AMIS, and messages are not being delivered, confirm before proceeding that the other voice messaging system is supported by Cisco Unity for AMIS messaging. See the "AMIS Support" section of the Cisco Unity 3.1 System Requirements, and Supported Hardware and Software, available on Cisco.com at http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/voice/c_unity/sysreq/31_sysrq.htm.

Use the following steps to troubleshoot problems with messages that leave the UAmis mailbox but are not delivered to subscribers. Note that detailed procedures for troubleshooting inbound AMIS problems can be found in the "AMIS Troubleshooting Procedures" section.

•Go to the Network > Delivery Options > Profile page of each of the AMIS delivery locations. Confirm that the Node ID entered on the page exactly matches the node ID that the remote voice messaging system transmits.

•If you have not determined why the messages are not being delivered, use the Cisco Unity Diagnostic Tool to set micro traces and send a test message. See the procedure To set and retrieve traces for AMIS messages. You may need to contact Cisco TAC to interpret the trace data.

AMIS Troubleshooting Procedures

Use the following procedures as needed to troubleshoot problems with AMIS message delivery. For discussion of when to use the following procedures, and the correct order in which to do the procedures, see the preceding topics:

Step 1 In the Cisco Unity Administrator, change the AMIS restriction table to disallow all numbers. This causes all AMIS messages to be queued in the UAmis mailbox until the AMIS schedule becomes active.

Step 3 Locate the Voice Connector service in the Name column. In Exchange 2000, the display name for the service is "Exchange 2000 Voice Connector," and in Exchange 5.5, the display name is "Internet Voice Connector."

Step 4 If the Status column indicates that the Voice Connector service is not running, right-click the service and click Start.

To set access permissions on the Exchange 2000 mailbox store

Do this procedure if you need to gain access to the MTS-IN and MTS-OUT queues on the Exchange server on which the Voice Connector is installed.

Step 1 On the Exchange server on which the Voice Connector is installed, start the Exchange System Manager (on the Windows Start menu, click Programs > Microsoft Exchange > System Manager).

Step 1 Log on to the Exchange server on which the Voice Connector is installed.

Step 2 Stop the Voice Connector service.

Step 3 Use Notepad (or any other text editor) to create an empty file with the file name gwivc.log, and save the file in the folder C:\WINNT\System32.

The Voice Connector logs information to this file.

Step 4 Start the Voice Connector service.

Step 5 Send a test message.

Step 6 If you will be sending the log to TAC, save it with a new name or move it out of the folder. Then delete the log file. Otherwise, the Voice Connector will continue logging information to the file, which consumes hard disk space.

To view or remove messages in the UAmis mailbox by using DohPropTest

Step 1 On the Cisco Unity server, browse to the location where Cisco Unity is installed (the default is C:\CommServer), and then browse to the TechTools folder.

To use the StatusMonitor utility to watch details of an AMIS transmission

Step 1 In the Cisco Unity Administrator, go to the System > Ports page, and change the settings as needed so that only port 1 is enabled for outbound AMIS calls. This makes it easier to observe the call progress information in the StatusMonitor.

Step 2 On the Cisco Unity server, browse to the location in which Cisco Unity is installed (the default is C:\CommServer), and then browse to the TechTools folder.

Step 3 Run StatusMonitor.exe.

Step 4 Click Display and Conversation in the Monitor Settings When Started section.

Step 5 In the Ports list, confirm that Port 1 is selected for monitoring. This port should match the port selected on the System > Ports page for outbound AMIS calls (see Step 1).

Step 6 Click Start Monitor.

Step 7 Use the phone to dial into Cisco Unity, and send a test message to someone on the remote voice messaging system.

Step 8 Observe the information in the StatusMonitor.

In the Display State pane in the StatusMonitor window, you should see the dialout information. In the Conversation State pane, you should see the states that the AMIS call goes through. An AMIS call goes through a finite number of states during an AMIS transmission. As the AMIS call progresses, you should see the descriptive name of each state in the Conversation State pane. For detailed information about the AMIS transmission states, refer to White Paper: AMIS Analog Networking Definitions, available on Cisco.com at http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/voice/c_unity/whitpapr/amis.htm.

Cisco Unity Stops Recording Before a Caller Has Finished Leaving a Message

There are several possible reasons that Cisco Unity may stop recording before a caller has finished leaving a message. In this section, possible causes are listed in order, from most likely to least likely to occur:

Dialogic Quiet Parameter Is Incorrect

A caller may report hearing a prompt and being prevented from completing a message, or a subscriber may report this problem after noticing that a recording ends before the caller finished leaving a message. This can happen when the quiet parameter is not set to recognize low voice volume. It also can happen when a changed quiet parameter is not retained after a Cisco Unity upgrade.

Cisco Unity, the Phone System, or the Central Office Disconnected the Call

If a caller reports being cut off while leaving a message and if the caller did not hear a prompt prior to the disconnect, Cisco Unity, the phone system, or the central office may have disconnected the call.